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Michael is the cofounder of The Hero's Journey Programs and the founder of MGM Psychological Associates. Michael designs, implements and oversees the Hero's Journey Program, and is also the lead facilitator. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychology and his M.Ed. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Pittsburgh, and began his career as an Education and Prevention Specialist. Click here to find out more.

Anna Marie Gaglia is a psychotherapist and organizational consultant on staff with MGM Psychological Associates. She is also a group facilitator on staff with the Hero's Journey Programs. In addition, she is a religious leader, counselor and teacher. Anna Marie lives in Baden, Pennsylvania. She is called to live a life of profound union with God and with one another, based on collaborative Christian feminist and womanist models. She lives and models the belief that all of creation lives and moves and has its being in God.

Email Contact for Anna Marie Gaglia

Joseph Jastrab is the senior teacher and a lead facilitator for The Hero's Journey Programs. The power of Joseph’s presence as a teacher and leader derives from his lifelong apprenticeship with the wisdom teachings of the earth. His numerous solitary excursions into the wilderness have provided him ample experience in wilderness survival and exploration of the wild and natural terrain of the human heart and spirit.

A former faculty member at Empire State College and the State College at New Paltz, New York, he taught numerous innovative courses on wilderness leadership and ecopsychology. His writings have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies and his book, "Sacred Manhood, Sacred Earth: A Quest into the Wilderness of a Man's Heart", is considered a pioneering work in the field of men's spiritual development. Joseph was a pioneer in the resurgence of the contemporary vision quest has guided hundreds of men and women on this rite of passage during the past 25 years. He currently works with individuals, in person and by phone consultation, in his spiritual counseling and therapy practice and is active as a community leader in offering programs to support adolescents in their development.

Joseph brings a seasoned wisdom, compassion and humor to the demanding work of human spiritual development, describing himself professionally as a “Facilitator of the Inevitable.”

Peter is a lead facilitator for the hero's journey program. Having been involved in men's work for the past fifteen years Peter brings a sense of his own unique masculine identity to the program as well as a passion for assisting other men on the journey of personal discovery to strengthen and understand their own divine masculine.
A combination of strength, sensitivity and humor best describes Peter when he is working directly with the participants in our programs. Peter and his wife of 19 years Jamy, live just outside Boston. Together they own a Healing Center dedicated to helping others find and stay on their path of Healing, Health and Happiness. Peter holds a Master Degree in Classical Acupuncture and is a licensed Herbalist. He Graduated from and taught at The Barbara Brennan School of Healing for over ten years. In 2002 he completed The Bert Hellinger Family Constellation training program and has since been leading workshops in the Family Constellation method focusing on how our ancestral lineage effects our current life circumstances. Peter sees private clients as a Healer and Acupuncturist and maintains his health through a vigorous yoga practice.

My life's journey and work has been greatly influenced by the search for wholeness. The spiritual quest has led me to Asia in the early 80ties, where I spent three years in Buddhist monasteries in Thailand and Burma and Yoga ashrams in India practising and studying buddhist meditation and yoga. The spiritual opening has led me to study naturopathy and homeopathy and later healing work as a way to integrate my work with my life. I have been a practising homeopath and therapist and workshop leader for the past 17 years, in Switzerland and now in Spain. In my work with clients I combine homeopathy with body oriented process work and hands on healing. The focus of my work is to help clients open their doors to a greater perspective of who they are. I see my life and work as service. The hero's journey gives us a roadmap on how to travel our inner landscape and what we can encounter along the way. It is a powerful archetypal journey for both men and women. It opens us to the greater potential of who we are. It holds the premise that we can face the challenges which we are confronted with and come out the other side more empowered, more whole. This work comes out of our longing to create a space for women to walk this journey a "women's way". I look forward to the opportunity to walk with you, and help facilitate your journey.


Karl Direske is a lead facilitator for The Hero's Journey Programs. He is a certified Energy Healer and graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, blends his high-sensory perception skills with his ability to influence hands-on energy as he assists individuals to hasten their personal process of healing. Passionate about his work with "The Medicine Waters Conservancy", a nonprofit corporation that works to preserve, protect, and care-take the Earth, Karl believes fervently in its principles and in safeguarding our world for the use and enjoyment of all people.

Karl is also dedicated to enhancing his own education and enlightenment, and spends a great deal of energy engaged in the studies of "Grandfather;" our "oneness" with the earth, and other Native American ways; at "Tom Brown's Tracker School," the largest tracking, nature & wilderness survival school in the world.

In 1996, Karl established Earth-Wind Structures, a Holistic Building Company in North Salem, NY, in which he dedicates himself to many of the principles of Bau Biology. Within Earth-Wind, Karl works with his clients to eliminate or alleviate obstacles that may interfere with the creation of healthy living and work spaces. His primary focus is on designing buildings and creating structures which positively impact health and the holistic interaction between human life and our living environment. He applies these principles to both new construction and the redesign or remediation of existing building spaces.

Kate Pernice is an energy healer, teacher, & body-centered process facilitator. She brings her passion for sharing the profound awakening that occurs when we open to the healing journey to her work. Her studies in allopathic & botanical medicine, shamanic healing, yoga, movement, & meditation have taken her into the worlds of both medical and spiritual healing. Kate is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, and currently is in her sixth year as a faculty member there. She is a nurse practitioner in private practice in Manhattan and Central Valley, New York. Kate also facilitates personal development workshops in the US & Mexico. Kate is a facilitator for the Hero's Journey for Women Intensive.

Thomas has been involved in Hero's Journey work for the past six years. He is a gifted father, mentor, friend, musician, chef and a student of life. He lives in Pittsburgh where he teaches music to singers, actors conductors, and theater technicians at Carnegie Mellon University. His deep calling is to discover genuine manhood and unbridled masculinity in himself and to help other men and women to discover their unique ability to experience their own path in a vital way.

"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work" -Mary Oliver-Anna Noack Brown is the head safety coordinator and facilitator in training for The Hero's Journey Programs; she will be a part of the staff for The Hero's Journey for Women Intensive for August 2006. Her path has led her from Australia to Indiana, where she is deepening her understanding of holistic learning methods. She is working as a founding member of a home schooling co-operative in Indianapolis IN, and home schooling her own two children. She is an advocate for Attachment Parenting within her community. She brings to this work a seasoned love of the outdoors, having worked in outdoor education for several years. She has facilitated high and low challenge courses, rock climbing and rappelling adventures as well as spelunking adventures. She has facilitated many years of adventure programming at the Jumonville Camp, Conference and Retreat Center in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. In addtion, she brings an exquisitely joyful and loving attention to detail and to the participants themselves, and thus provides participants with both physical and emotional safety and security as learn the process of self-discovery at their developmental edges.


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Web Site maintenance and redesign, technical - computer assistance and support. Video editing and sound production.
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Office manager for The Hero's Journey Programs.






 

 

Hero's Journey Programs
5655 Bryant St.
Pittsburgh Pa 15206
412-363-1530

E-mail Michael Mervosh

Hero's Journey Programs
Copyright 2005